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How can I save money during the holiday season?
- Book Your Travel Early
- Keep an Eye on Prices
- Choose the Dates that no one wants
- Travel Somewhere no one else is going
- Consider an Alternate Airport
- Ship your Luggage
- Travel Rewards
- Take Advantage of Loyalty Programs
- Redeem Points and Miles
- Open a Travel Savings Account
- Use points on gifts for family and friends
Holidays are all about spending time with your family and loved ones. But, the preparations and traveling can get pretty expensive. So, looking for ways to save money is always a priority.
Especially if you’re trying to fly from one country to another, book hotels, reserve cars, and take trains for exploring new places and need to stay on a budget.
So is it possible to save money on travel during the holidays?
Yes! Luckily, there are lots of ways to save money on holiday travel without having to skimp on the festive spirit or foregoing traditions.
If you’re planning on traveling for the holidays this year but don’t want to break the bank in the process, read on for some great tips and tricks for saving money when it comes to holiday travel.
From finding affordable accommodations near your destination to getting tickets at reduced prices with an airline loyalty program—there are many ways you can cut costs while still getting where you need to go in time for Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner or New Year’s Eve celebrations.
It’s already costly to celebrate the holidays, so finding ways to cut travel expenses is crucial!
If you want to learn what it means to become a budget traveler check out my post on how to travel on a budget.
Book Your Travel Early
I’m a fan of planning for a trip way in advance by setting alerts and watching the prices. However, I usually don’t actually start booking anything until a few months before. You know, depending on the time of the year and where I want to go.
But if I want to save money on holiday travel, it’s best to book early. Hopper’s Holiday Travel Report advises the best days to travel during the holidays and they say to book early!
Research has shown that booking your holiday travel earlier in the year will help to reduce the overall cost of your trip. If you’re booking flights, for instance, you’ll likely find cheaper tickets during the summer or fall months.
Airlines like Jetblue or Southwest are always having sales! And with their no penalty cancellation or change policies it’s easier than ever to book early. Nothing to lose!
If you have flexible travel dates, however, you may want to wait until more last minute to book your trip. This way, you can take advantage of last-minute travel deals and save even more money on your holiday travel.
The only problem is that you may find yourself booking last-minute with limited options available. It’s really up to you, but starting to plan early is low risk. Thanks to the pandemic, travel is more flexible nowadays. You can more easily cancel travel reservations without a penalty if pricing changes.
Keep an eye on the prices after you make your purchase.
If you find a good price on flights, just book it. If you find a hotel that you like and it has availability, just book it. Booking airline tickets and hotel reservations is more flexible than ever before.
Most airlines will refund the difference if the price drops after you have purchased your ticket. It’s similar with hotels, you can make multiple reservations and be able to cancel a week or two before check in without penalty.
Just make sure that you have pricing alerts set up so that you can watch for price drops. I use Google Flights ,Hopper and Kayak, but there are many sites out there that can help find you the best price on travel and not just for during the holidays.
Before you book, be sure to read my post on the big mistakes to avoid when booking flights.
Choose the dates that no one wants.
It’s the most wonderful time of year! You may be going home for the holidays OR you may be taking advantage of traveling to another destination while everyone else is at home (smart).
Either way, it’s a good money saving tip to book your travel for days that most people don’t want. Most people traveling for Thanksgiving want to travel from Wednesday to Sunday.
Leaving or coming back a day earlier or later can save you money on your airfare costs. So, before you make your decision, check all the possible dates. You can use the Google Flights Calendar to view pricing for the different days of the week.
This can apply to all holidays, not just Thanksgiving and Christmas. Let’s say you’re traveling for Labor Day weekend. Instead of flying out on Friday, check the pricing for flights on Wednesday or Thursday evening. When you’re flying back, don’t fly back on Tuesday. It will usually be cheaper to fly back on Monday night or Wednesday to avoid the mad rush.
If you have the means to do this, the savings can be huge!
Travel to somewhere no one else is going
People always ask: How can I lower my travel expenses?
Go to where the people aren’t!
When trying to save money on travel in general, it’s always important to be flexible. Especially when it comes to your dates, but also your destination.
If you’re flexible with your travel plans, you open yourself up to more opportunities to experience a new place, culture, food etc. It can be a fun new adventure to spend the holidays somewhere other than your home, as long as you’re with the people you love, that’s what matters!
If you’re not nailed down to a destination, try out the Google Flights’ Explore tab to find destinations with cheap flights. Browse through the map, you may find a city or country that you’ve always been curious about.
Maybe, you can take that trip to your Europe over Thanksgiving or go on a cruise!
If you’re traveling to a destination during the off season, make sure that you do some research to see what may be closed during your stay.
Navigate to the Explore tab in Google Flights.
Add in your home airport and/or nearby airports.
You’ll see a map with destinations and flight prices.
Consider an alternate airport
Since we’re being flexible – let’s also look at alternate airports that may have more flights available at a cheaper price.
Check out this article from Scott’s Cheap Flights about best and worst airports for cheap flights. It’s specifically about US airports for International flights, but I think it’s a similar principle for domestic flight as well.
Large cities often have multiple airports. It might seem logical that airfares would be the same, but they often aren’t. While you’re looking at alternate dates, consider alternate airports as well.
You can end up saving money on travel during the holidays or any time by simple choosing to fly out of a different airport.
Ship your luggage
Probably one of the more creative ways to save money on travel, especially for holiday travel is to ship your luggage.
Airlines are charging an arm and leg for bags. Sometimes the fees are $50 each way for a single bag. Fees are even charged for carry-on luggage for basic economy fares on many airlines.
If you don’t have a credit card or airline status that will eliminate baggage fees, you may want to consider shipping your luggage and presents a few days before you leave for your trip.
It may sound a little extreme, but if you consider what you’d be paying for checked bags it’s actually a pretty genius idea. For one, you don’t have to lug it through the airport, wait in line to check it, or worry that it may get lost if you have one or more connections.
You can save time and money by shipping your luggage.
And with a website like Lugless, you don’t even have to do the work to find the best deal on shipping.
And if you’re planning just take it all on the plane, check out my post for my tips on packing a carry on.
Travel Rewards
If you’re a frequent flyer, you may want to consider using your airline rewards account, points and miles to book holiday travel.
You can earn travel rewards when you open up new credit cards for the purpose of earning the welcome signup bonus and credit card perks.
By doing this, you’ll likely earn enough points to cover most of the costs associated with holiday travel or any travel.
Redeem Points and Miles
There are many credit card sign up bonuses that are worth opening up a new credit card for. Just make sure that every time you open up a new credit card, you need a plan to meet the minimum spend and you’re never late with a payment. Always pay off your statement balance!
You can also check your credit card to see if it offers any travel-related benefits.
- No foreign transaction fees
- Travel Insurance
- Free Priority Pass lounge access
- TSA Pre-Check or Global entry statement credit
Many credit cards let you earn rewards and travel miles when you make purchases, so you may want to check your card to see if it has anything to offer when it comes to holiday travel. You may be able to save extra money on your trip or even get free travel!
My favorite travel credit is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card for its low annual fee, flexible points, and travel benefits.
Take Advantage of Loyalty Programs
Many airlines have loyalty programs that allow frequent flyers to earn points towards free flights and other travel-related perks. You can even use those points on different airlines through their partners.
For instance, you may be a member of the Virgin Atlantic loyalty program which may not have the biggest network of routes within the U.S. However, since it partners with Delta you can use your points with Virgin on Delta flights.
Many airlines like American Airlines, Southwest and United also have their own shopping portals. So, you can earn loyalty points by doing your holiday shopping. Plus if you use a points credit card to make those purchases, you can earn additional points at the same time. Cha-Ching!
If you don’t have a frequent flyer account and want to save on holiday travel, consider signing up for one and earning as many points as you can. You can use these points to book free flights, get discounts on hotels, or get free upgrades on seating.
Another advantage of signing up for a loyalty program is that you’ll get emails when flights deals come up. That way, you can book your travel as soon as the deals are available—and before they sell out!
Use points on gifts for family and friends
Another great way to use points is to purchase gift cards or gifts for family and friends. Most points credit cards will have a portal where you can purchase gift cards on sale or connect your account to Amazon so you can use the points to purchase your holiday gifts!
Is it OK to use savings for a vacation?
Only if it’s savings that you have put a side specifically for vacation or you have opened a travel savings account. It’s not a good idea to dip into your emergency savings fund to book a vacation.
You should always have enough savings to cover unexpected expenses. If you want to earn more than a traditional savings account, open a High Yield Savings account. I talk about this in my post on Simple ways to save money on vacation.
Bottom Line
It’s definitely possible to save money on travel during the holidays. It’s also not hard to do it. You deserve to travel the world without breaking the bank.
Want to Travel More for Less?
Become a Budget Traveler! Head over to my start here page and grab my free budget travel cheat sheet – it’s packed with valuable tips to help you create your own winning budget travel strategy.
